Rockford is not a town where the tavern owners are noted for featuring live music. The small number of establishments that do hire musicians, aren't exactly generous with the cash.

So, if you are a professional music maker in the Forest City, even a part-timer, you must be willing to play in friendlier confines, meaning Chicago and its suburbs, and in Wisconsin.

So, a lot of local entertainers have gone elsewhere to earn a living. One who is still based in Rockford is Mike Williamson, who has made a living by singing pop and jazz standards in area supper clubs and for private engagements, along with staging special productions and making forays into the Chicago and St. Louis areas.

He's released more than a dozen albums over the last three decades. His new one, "Now You're Here," has a highly-polished quality that was once attainable only by spending a small fortune in a recording studio in New York City, Chicago, Nashville or Los Angeles.

Now, with commonly available and affordable computer equipment, software and downloads, a musician who also has a technical flair can be his or her own producer. Williamson's latest album is an example of that technology in action.

"Thanks to what I can do with my computer, I arranged everything and recorded it myself. I'm so flabbergasted at what I can do now, something that used to cost thousands of dollars. Although, it does take some skill to put it all together," said Williamson when we talked Wednesday by phone.

Williamson and collaborator Bruce Warden, a Rockford keyboardist and musician, co-wrote the words and music for the new album, which began three years ago as a contract from a New York production company to write songs for a Broadway musical to be called "The Cotton Club."

The musical has yet to be staged, but "Bruce and I wrote some good words and music for that project and decided to start collaborating on an album,," Williamson said. "I've been very pleased with what we've done."

Williamson sent me one of his new CDs two weeks ago, and I've been listening to it in my car. There's no mistaking Williamson's mellow, laid back, jazzy voice. Warden and Williamson have come up with some classy songs that Williamson categorizes as "Soft pop/jazz," including "It's Gonna Be A Wonderful Night" and "Walking Around in a Daydream," two that I especially liked. The CD is available on iTunes and CD Baby.

Williamson came here as a high school senior from Albert Lea, Minn., and got the music bug while working as a student photographer at Rock Valley College in the 1970s.

"I took pictures of all the entertainers who came there. I shot pictures of The Lettermen, and a local act called the Proud Americans, who got me to join them," Williamson said.

Page 2 of 2 - "I ended up becoming friends with The Lettermen, and I sang with them."

Mike's debut as a lounge singer was with the Ron Pedersen Trio, and he worked with the late keyboard legend Julian DeLuna. In the 1980s, Williamson produced a series of "Magic Monday" extravaganzas at what was then called the MetroCentre. He's also performed at shows in St. Louis and in Chicago.

Currently, "I'm at The Butterfly in Beloit the first two Fridays and Saturdays, and the Third Friday of the month. He's been renewed for 2014 at The Butterfly, Williamson said.

"Singing is just something I've loved to do. I'm fortunate that I've learned all kinds of songs, and I work with talented people who know them, too," Williamson said. "I've always enjoyed the interaction with musicians."

Coming up, Williamson will perform a Christmas show at Tebala Temple on Dec. 18; he'll also do the show in Belleville. "I'm also doing a tribute to swing Nov. 30 at Franchesco's with Harlan Jefferson," he said.

Williamson also does a radio show on WTPB 99.3 FM, at 7:30 p.m. Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays and Sundays. It's also on at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Williamson, who is 61 but jokes that he is really 39, says he plans to keep on singing.

"If I were to retire, which I can't do, my goal would be to be a newspaper columnist. I was editor in chief of my sixth grade newspaper in Franklin, Ind., you know."